Okla-homey
7/9/2007, 06:07 AM
July 9, 1918: Trains collide outside Nashville
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/21245/2000792925321769008_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000792925321769008)
89 years ago today, two passenger trains collide outside Nashville, Tennessee, killing 101 people in one of the nation's worst railroad disasters. Despite the high death toll, the story was mainly ignored by the national press.
It was just after 7 a.m. when the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louisline’s Train No. 1 arrived at the Shops station. It was carrying a large contingent of workers heading for their jobs at the munitions plant in Harding, Tennessee, the next stop on the line.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/21618/2000792303697895205_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000792303697895205)
Nashville's Union Station, the last stop before disaster on this day in 1918.
America was in the midst of WWI and badly needed explosive ordnance. Poor folks from Memphis and eastern Arkansas were flocking to work at the plant in Harding. Most of the ones who rode this train that day would never make it.
The train’s engineer was supposed to wait for an express passenger train to pass through the Shops station in the opposite direction before heading to Harding.
Instead, the engineer headed out after a freight train passed by, a terrible mistake. Train No. 1 had reached about 60 miles per hour when the express train appeared ahead of it, traveling even faster on a collision course. It has been estimated that the trains collided while both were making around 60 mph.
There was no time to brake. Shortly after 7:15 a.m. the two trains collided at Dutchman's Grade near White Bridge Road. The first two cars on each train were thrown forward and collapsed on each other. Everything and everyone in these cars were destroyed. Many of the wooden cars were crushed or hurled sideways. The sound of the collision could be heard two miles away.
In addition to the 101 people killed, another 170 people were seriously injured. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, many newspapers across the country did not even cover the story, most likely because the vast majority of the casualties were black folks.
As many as 50,000 people came to the track that day to help rescue survivors, search for loved ones, or simply gawk at the tragic scene.
After a lot of mergers and consolidations, the old NC&StL ultimately became part of the CSX system which serves much of the eastern US. CSX Transportation was formed on July 1, 1986 as a renaming of the Seaboard System Railroad and Chessie System, Inc. into one entity. CSX's only really competitor is the Norfolk Southern.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/21362/2000730123340199774_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000730123340199774)
CSX is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL.
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/19476/2000749381582493078_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000749381582493078)
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/21245/2000792925321769008_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000792925321769008)
89 years ago today, two passenger trains collide outside Nashville, Tennessee, killing 101 people in one of the nation's worst railroad disasters. Despite the high death toll, the story was mainly ignored by the national press.
It was just after 7 a.m. when the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louisline’s Train No. 1 arrived at the Shops station. It was carrying a large contingent of workers heading for their jobs at the munitions plant in Harding, Tennessee, the next stop on the line.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/21618/2000792303697895205_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000792303697895205)
Nashville's Union Station, the last stop before disaster on this day in 1918.
America was in the midst of WWI and badly needed explosive ordnance. Poor folks from Memphis and eastern Arkansas were flocking to work at the plant in Harding. Most of the ones who rode this train that day would never make it.
The train’s engineer was supposed to wait for an express passenger train to pass through the Shops station in the opposite direction before heading to Harding.
Instead, the engineer headed out after a freight train passed by, a terrible mistake. Train No. 1 had reached about 60 miles per hour when the express train appeared ahead of it, traveling even faster on a collision course. It has been estimated that the trains collided while both were making around 60 mph.
There was no time to brake. Shortly after 7:15 a.m. the two trains collided at Dutchman's Grade near White Bridge Road. The first two cars on each train were thrown forward and collapsed on each other. Everything and everyone in these cars were destroyed. Many of the wooden cars were crushed or hurled sideways. The sound of the collision could be heard two miles away.
In addition to the 101 people killed, another 170 people were seriously injured. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, many newspapers across the country did not even cover the story, most likely because the vast majority of the casualties were black folks.
As many as 50,000 people came to the track that day to help rescue survivors, search for loved ones, or simply gawk at the tragic scene.
After a lot of mergers and consolidations, the old NC&StL ultimately became part of the CSX system which serves much of the eastern US. CSX Transportation was formed on July 1, 1986 as a renaming of the Seaboard System Railroad and Chessie System, Inc. into one entity. CSX's only really competitor is the Norfolk Southern.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/21362/2000730123340199774_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000730123340199774)
CSX is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL.
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/19476/2000749381582493078_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000749381582493078)